Under his hands--for the spirit of reform was strong upon him--his rooms took on a sober appearance.

He amused himself by making sundry penitential offerings to the flames; numerous evidences of his unrighteous bachelorhood disappearing from walls and book-shelves.

Coincident with this he owned to a feeling of intense satisfaction.

What remained he would have his friend Marshall Langham sell after he was gone, his finances having suddenly become of paramount importance.
But the days passed, and though he was not able to bring himself to leave Mount Hope, his purpose in its final aspect underwent no change.
He lived to himself, and his old haunts and his old friends saw nothing of him.

Evelyn Langham, whom he had known before she married his friend Marshall, was fortunately absent from town.